Hugh Grant went full-send on his homemade audition tape for his Tony the Tiger role in Jerry Seinfeld’s Unfrosted Netflix movie.
Seinfeld, who directs and acts in the movie as Bob Cabana, and co-screenwriter Spike Feresten told IndieWire how they scored Grant to play Thurl Ravenscrof, the man behind the Frosted Flakes mascot Tony the Tiger. Even after he had already been given the part, Grant sent them an iPhone audition tape that blew them away.
Hugh Grant’s Unfrosted Audition ‘Stunned’ Jerry Seinfeld and Spike Feresten
“He had a glass of wine in his hand and he was on the couch,” Feresten said. “We were just stunned on how homemade his audition was — and how good it was. Here’s Hugh Grant at 8 o’clock at night before he goes to bed, crushing the lines. Crushing. That’s when we said, ‘Jerry, close this for us. Get this guy.’”
But besides Grant’s kismet casting, gathering the rest of ensemble cast wasn’t an easy feat.
“There was a long time where we didn’t have anybody to make this movie. We had the budget, we had the script, but we didn’t have any people to play the parts,” Seinfeld said. “That was one of the most terrifying moments. We would go into this little room that we had with each part on a 3×5 card on the wall. And we had [Jim] Gaffigan as Kellogg — and that was it. And there were like 30 parts.”
After Grant signed on to the film, however, “a lot of other people started falling in after that,” Seinfeld said.
Set in 1963, Unfrosted follows a rivalry between cereal brands Kellogg’s and Post as they race to create a breakfast pastry that will change the market forever. It’s essentially a fictional version of the origin story of Pop-Tarts.
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Jim Gaffigan plays Edsel Kellogg III, Amy Schumer plays Marjorie Post, Max Greenfield plays Rick Ludwin, Patrick Warburton plays Tom Terranova, Christian Slater plays Mike Diamond, Bill Burr plays JFK, and Melissa McCarthy plays Donna Stankowski.
Comedian and Crazy Rich Asians actor Ronny Chieng has a one-line appearance in the movie, which amazed Seinfeld.
“I remember asking Ronny Chieng if he would do one line. And he was thrilled. He said, ‘Yeah! I’ll get on a plane, I’ll come out — I would love to do it!’ And I could not understand it,” Seinfeld said. “But having seen it in the movie, I could see oh, it’s fun just to be in it because it’s funny, it’s silly.”
Unfrosted arrives on Netflix on May 3.
Main Image: UNFROSTED. Hugh Grant as Thurl in Unfrosted. Cr. John P. Johnson/Netflix © 2024.
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